The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has called for increased involvement of border communities in securing Nigeria’s borders in addition to the use of digital technology, biometric identity systems and intelligence sharing to tackle emerging security threats.
The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Kemi Nandap, made the call on Monday in Lagos at the 2026 conference of the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE).
The conference, themed “The Connected Borderlands: Socio-Cultural Integration and the Centrality of Policy, Research, and Security,” brought together scholars, policymakers, border management practitioners and development partners to examine border security, migration and cross-border relations in Africa.
Nandap said changing migration patterns, regional integration, cross-border economic activities and emerging security threats had made it necessary to rethink Nigeria’s approach to border management.
She said border areas should not be viewed only as geographical boundaries between countries, but as spaces where families and communities interact and legitimate trade and movement take place.
She said governments must therefore secure border areas while allowing lawful movement and protecting the socio-cultural and economic relationships that sustain border communities.
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Nandap said border security threats had also become more complex, with human trafficking, migrant smuggling, identity fraud, organised crime, terrorism and cyber-enabled crimes increasingly operating across national boundaries.
“Addressing them requires us to work differently and, importantly, to work together,” she said.
She said border communities should be treated as strategic partners in border management because their local knowledge could assist security agencies in identifying and responding to threats.
Nandap said the NIS was also combining technology and intelligence with the experience and professional judgment of its officers to respond to emerging threats.
She said Nigeria had introduced several digital systems as part of efforts to strengthen border management, including enhanced e-Passports, automated passport applications and biometric identity verification.
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She recalled that Nigeria became the first African country to introduce the electronic passport in 2007 and said the country had since introduced an enhanced version with stronger security and biometric features.
She added that the centralisation of passport personalisation had improved the integrity of passport production, while Nigeria’s participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Public Key Directory had strengthened the authentication of Nigerian electronic passports.
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Nandap also said contactless biometric passport services had expanded access to passport processing for Nigerians living abroad.
At Nigeria’s international airports, she said, automated border control systems, including e-gates, were being used to combine biometric verification with faster passenger processing.
She added that surveillance systems, command and control capabilities, communications infrastructure, and integrated border and data platforms were also being deployed across the country’s air, land and maritime borders.
Nandap said the investments were intended to improve officers’ ability to identify risks and make timely decisions while facilitating lawful travel.
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“Their fundamental purpose is to enhance the capacity of our officers to make timely and well-informed decisions, identify emerging risks at an earlier stage and improve operational coordination, and facilitate the seamless movement of legitimate travellers while safeguarding national security,” she said.
She, however, said technology could not replace professionalism, experience, sound judgment and integrity in border management.
The Chairman of ABORNE, Prof. Paul Nugent, said health emergencies, including Ebola and COVID-19, as well as regional insurgencies, had repeatedly placed African borders at the centre of political and security responses.
He said such crises often led to prolonged border closures, affecting border communities and cross-border economic activities.
Nugent said ABORNE was seeking to bridge the gap between academic research and policymaking by engaging border enforcement agencies, policymakers and field practitioners.
He said the network also wanted to change perceptions of African borderlands, which are often viewed mainly through insecurity and underdevelopment.
According to him, ABORNE scholars see borderlands as centres of trade, urban innovation and cultural creativity.
Prof. Anthony Asiwaju, a former Director of the Centre for African Regional Integration and Border Studies, also commended the conference and its focus on research and policy in border management across Africa.
